Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Yes, it's true, I have been unfaithful. I am attracted to someone new and have been seeing them every day without shame! Did I get your attention?!

Well, as you know, I am a multi- crafter, I think many people who craft are, and although crochet is my true love, every once in awhile I betray my hooks and learn something new.

Tatting is something that has intrigued me for quite some time, but since it is time consuming, I just didn't ever get around to trying. Last year I bought myself two shuttles and a book and added learning to tat to my list of new year's resolutions for 2013. After seeing a few projects that my friends in my crochet groups had tried, I was inspired. I tried shuttle tatting a couple of times, but it is quite complex and decided to start with needle tatting. I could only get my hands on a mattress needle to start with, so I used it to get the gist of how it works and help me with tension, while I waited for my tatting needles to come in the mail. This is a whole new world to me and I am so excited!

I followed a few patterns, and also experimented on my own. In the mean time I have been pinning away on my Pinterest board and researching blogs of some very talented tatters. One of them is Totus Mel . She is extremely talented at needle tatting and has some great videos on YouTube too! Another is Yarnplayertats there is some incredible tatting going on here folks. There are many others, these are only two and I also found RustiKate's video to be very helpful. In Italian the are some wonderful video tutorials byDaniela. I just thought I would add these links in case any of you are inspired to start learning this incredible art.

I just completed this set and I really must say thank you to my friend Le Giugge, because she is the one who gave me the pattern. When I saw hers, I fell in love and just new I had to make it! Thank you also goes to my friend Daniela, who has shared her knowledge with me and Mindi who gave me some beautiful patterns. Happy tatting! :)

Saturday, March 23, 2013

You know when you see something, and just HAVE to make it , RIGHT NOW? Well, that's what happened to me when my friend Mindi showed me the adorable hen she'd made. Everything else I had to do went out the window. Ironing....yeah right. Lunch..... Who needs to eat, I'm supposed to be on a diet anyway! I was on a mission to make this NOW! Here is the original link to the pattern, which is actually an egg cozy. I made mine bigger, stuffed it, and closed it at the bottom, because I have other plans for it, which you will see, if you stay tuned.......

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

It's been a long time since I've posted, I know, and this is not how I planned my next post to be, but here it is anyway. I hope you don't mind. I promise the next will have pictures and I even have a couple of tutorials planned, so please bear with me...

Today's post is about a recurring topic among designers and crafters and all of us who publish our work on the web, only to have it copied , stolen and/ or passed off as their own.

I belong to different craft groups on Facebook, as many of you know, and every once in awhile this comes up, because most of us publish our work on blogs, Facebook, Flickr etc.....
The groups I belong to have an average of 2000 members and so, as in any small town ( we can look at it like this), there is bound to be at least one person, lurking behind the scenes, waiting to take advantage of many trustworthy people who want to share their craft with other crafters who truly appreciate the hard work and great ingenuity it takes to design or make something. In the past month, this has happened twice, in two different groups. In the first, a troll copied photos from a very talented woman's blog and posted them on their blog, passing them off as their own. In the second, a troll downloaded photos, removed the trademark and logo from the photos, and posted them to their page, again passing them off as their own. In both cases these trolls were notified that what they were doing is unethical and illegal, and the reply, was more or less, "I didn't do anything wrong, these were found on the web".

Slightly different, but related
A friend of mine, who is a talented crocheter asked me about selling her things and that she'd taken inspiration from things she'd seen on the web. Is it okay to sell them, or would she be copying?

My opinion:

First of all, the trolls in question have violated laws and rules established and published in these groups. Besides being illegal and unethical, I can only feel sorry for these "people" who may know the technical part of crafting, but obviously don't have a creative bone in their body, and therefore have to steal and copy other people's creativity. This is something that really infuriates me, because in my book, RESPECT is the number one RULE IN LIFE. That includes respect for others' ideas and work as well.

Second,
We all get inspiration from the things around us, including the web. As far as answering my friend's
question goes, you should ask yourself this," Did I copy? Am I trying to make the same object, without permission?" or did you see something you like, maybe use the same stitch or shape or color, or make something similar, but in a different way? If the answer is yes to the first part, in my opinion, you are doing someone wrong. If you are a truly creative person, you should give the respect you want to receive for your work, by respecting others'.

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About Me

I love creativity of every kind and like to share as well, thus, this blog. I have learned a lot from others who have done the same! I enjoy cooking, baking, decoupage, embroidery, but especially crochet, which I work on every day!! I love to read and I love music, so some of that will be part of this blog as well!